You slip your heart into my chest
by PhoebeDreams
Summary: The ARC is being invaded by mysterious forces, and it's up to Jess and Becker to save everyone while dealing with their increasing attraction to each other.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jess sighed happily as she took the first sip of hot cocoa. It was a luxury she rarely indulged in at work, as it generally made her a little sleepy, but today, she had made an exception. After all, it was Saturday, and there was nothing urgent going on today. There had been a few blind spots she'd noticed in the CCTV system, and she wanted to look into that today. Becker would arrive soon to go over the system with her, and her stomach fluttered a little at the thought. She had to admit she might have scheduled this meeting for a Saturday on purpose, hoping that they might have a bit more peace and quiet than on a regular workday. Who knew, maybe she could persuade him to go out for dinner or a drink afterwards...

And if not, she could look forward to a quiet evening alone at home, as Connor and Abby had gone on a trip to Brighton for the weekend. She still had some of the expensive bath salts her mother had given her for her birthday, and there was a rich Merlot as well as a selection of her favourite films waiting – Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's... all the classics. Although she'd still prefer a Saturday night scenario that involved Becker, she thought with a little smile, and allowed herself to keep thinking about him for a few moments. She had forbidden herself from dwelling on that particular topic for too long, feeling that it would not do to let her feelings get so out of control as to make her unable to work with him. By now, however, what had started out as a little crush, intensified by the occasional flirtation when he responded to her teasing or brought her chocolate, had long since started to turn into so much more.

Of course, after the bomb thing, he had withdrawn from her, so much that she started to think that maybe she had imagined the flirting and he only saw her as a friendly colleague with a sweet tooth or, worse, a kind of little sister. And then, just as she had decided to give up on him before she could say or do any more embarrassing things ("Stay warm!" came to mind) when clearly he had no interest in her, the beetles had happened. And then shortly after the future predators at the ARC. Both incidents had taken place only a few weeks ago, and they were all still too shaken up about the only-just-averted apocalypse, so she hadn't had a chance to talk to him about it all yet. But she knew, now, that there was something there. Both times she had been in danger, he should have been worried about his own life, but he wasn't – he was worried about her. And it didn't take Abby and Emily's conspiratorial glances and nudges for her to realise that maybe he wasn't quite as indifferent to her as she'd begun to think...

Jess' daydreaming was rudely interrupted by a series of shouts and screams from the ops room. Some of the screams were clearly uttered out of fear and confusion, and she wondered if maybe a creature had escaped. But then there were orders bellowed out in a tone she had never heard Becker or any of his men use with the other ARC employees, followed by a series of sharp, echoing bangs that it took her a moment to realise were gunshots, and she knew with icy clarity that somethin was very, very wrong.

In a move she must have picked up from her colleagues on the field team, Jess ducked behind the kitchenette counter, just in time to avoid being seen by the burly man who stepped into the room and took a sweeping look around. From the way he carried himself, as well as a rather intimidating gun, she could instantly tell that he had had some kind of military training – and that he was not here with good intentions. The man was not wearing their security staff uniform – she should know, having spent hours admiring it on a certain Captain. This, in addition to the yelling and the shots which she hoped had only been fired to intimidate rather than to hurt or kill, confirmed her suspicion that there had to be intruders in the ops room, probably the entire building. And if reading the old ARC files had taught her anything, it was to be wary of intruders.

Trying to calm her heavy breathing, Jess remained as quiet as she could until she heard the man leaving again. After his footsteps had faded, presumably as he walked on down the corridor, Jess carefully crept towards the door and slowly inched her head around the door-frame to peer out. She could see all down the corridor and straight into the ops room, where she counted eight armed strangers pointing machine guns at the small group of people who had come in today – lab technicians, cleaning staff, one accountant. She shivered at the sight of terror on their faces, and prayed to God or whatever deity felt responsible that they would not find her.

While Jess was watching, four more of the invaders entered the ops room from the other side, herding in the security staff at gun-point. To her relief, Becker was not among the men – he had either not arrived yet, or had managed to evade the intruders just like her. Either option was comforting. Quietly, Jess withdrew back into her hiding place under the counter, wondering dimly at how much her two years at the ARC had changed her. A mere few months ago, an invasion of armed men at her workplace would have left her petrified with fear and right in the hands of the hostage-takers. Apparently, a few run-ins with bombs, concrete-eating beetles and deadly future predators gave one a whole new set of steely nerves.

Not that she wasn't scared stiff, mind you. Now that Jess felt secure for the moment, she couldn't do much more than sit with her knees pulled up to her chest, listening to her racing heartbeat and wondering frantically what to do. Jess suddenly remembered that, just last night, her Mum had been worried about how tired she sounded on the phone. Mrs Parker had reproached her daughter for working too much, and told her not to put in so much overtime. Right now, Jess wished she had, for once, heeded her mother's advice.

At that moment, there were footsteps approaching again – slow and cautious, but not as heavy as to indicate a return of the burly man who had searched the kitchen before. Nonetheless, Jess' blood froze when the footfalls stopped in front of the door, and then resumed moving - straight towards her. Jess closed her eyes, as if that would allow her to remain undetected, but snapped them open again when she registered someone crouching down beside her.

"Becker! How did you know I was in here? Am I visible from the corridor?" He had to smile at how she whispered the exact question he would ask himself in her situation.

"No. I didn't see you in the ops room, but I noticed your cup sitting on the counter and figured you'd be hiding in here. Are you all right?"

"Yes. I ducked down when I heard them coming."

"Good thinking." His voice sounded odd, somewhere between pride and relief, but he had turned away to crawl to the door and resume watching the scene at the end of the corridor, so she could not see his expression.

"Do you have any idea who they are? What they want?"

"No. I don't even know how they got in here. I left the ops room for five minutes to make some cocoa, and suddenly they were there. What do we do now?" As she asked it, it suddenly dawned on Jess what the invaders were after, but Becker already answered her question determinedly.

"We have to get these people out of here."

„No." Becker turned around and stared at her in surprise, but her voice was firm as she continued. "I realised what they want. I know you want to help our colleagues, and so do I, but right now, we need to get Connor's anomaly prototype and data from the lab. It's the most dangerous and important thing in here. It has to be what they are after. And if they get their hands on it … who knows what they might use it for?"

It took him only a second to take in what she was saying, but considerably longer to bring himself to make the decision – the decision to potentially sacrifice the lives of their ARC colleagues in order to save many more others. She had made the situation clear, but she could see on his face what an internal battle was raging inside him – she had seen the expression often enough whenever some innocent bystander died because of an anomaly. Eventually, he nodded.

„All right. Let's find a way to the lab. Can they see us on the CCTV screens?"

„I locked the hub before I left it, so we should be safe for a bit. But as soon as they crack the password, they can use the hub." Jess always locked her computer when she left her station. She knew it made her unpopular with some of the other staff, but the fact was that she did have a higher security clearance than most of her colleagues, and thus her computer contained access to almost all the information about all ARC projects, research and personnel. Right now, Jess was thankful for being such a creature of habit. Her password was quite secure, and they would need to have high-end technology and some serious hacking skills to crack it. Unless, of course, they could get their hands on her.

Apparently, Becker had realised the same thing.

"Don't worry. They're not getting you."

She smiled, moved by his protectiveness.

"So we get to the lab, grab Connor's equipment and hard-drive and get out of here."

She nodded, suddenly feeling confident with him by her side. They could do this. They had to.

"Let's go!"

He took her hand and, after checking none of the hostage-takers were around, led her out of their hiding-place and down a complicated route of little-used corridors towards the lab. They met no one on the way there – the hostage-takers must have already done a sweep of the building and be in the ops room with the hostages right now. As nervous as she was, Jess noticed that, after dragging her out of the rec room, Becker held on to her hand for a considerable while as they moved along the deserted corridors, and that it felt really nice.

With their complicated way of avoiding the invaders, it took them quite a while to get to the lab, and even longer to find all the things Jess thought needed to be protected. She really had to talk to Connor about keeping his workplace in order, Jess thought as she packed Connor's hard-drive and the anomaly-creating prototype into the dufflebag where Connor kept his spare clothes.

As they made their way to the exit, the hostage-takers suddenly came into view again. There were two of them, but fortunately, the element of surprise was on Jess and Becker's side. Before the two armed men could react, they had ducked into a side corridor.

"What do we do now?" Jess had to suppress a slight panic.

"Run!"

"Where? This corridor is leading away from the exit." Despite her protest, Jess followed Becker's instruction and broke into a run, panic returning full force as she heard the hostage-takers picking up speed behind them as well. They heard one of them yelling, presumably into a walkie-talkie:

"We missed two! They took something from one of the labs! Block all the exits, don't let them get out!"

"What do we do now?" Despite her apparently improved crisis management skills, Jess had still not brought herself to start wearing flat, comfortable shoes, and her running skills left much to be desired. By now, she was mostly being pulled along by Becker.

"We're not going to make it to the exit before them." Suddenly, it occurred to Jess: There was one place within the ARC where they would be safe.

"Panic … Room.." Jess managed to gasp out, and Becker promptly nodded and changed course towards the garage and the panic room entrance. One quick stop behind a corner allowed Becker to take out their pursuers with his EMD, and they soon saw the familiar blue doors in front of them that promised safety.

Just as they had reached the doors, however, a man hurled himself out of the shadows at Becker, jumping on his back and locking him in a choking grip that made it impossible for Becker to fight him off.

Fear, despair and the knowledge that this man was the only thing standing between them and safety spurred Jess into action. Grabbing the EMD Becker had dropped in surprise, she swung its heavy handle at the attacker's head as powerfully as she could. The blow was not enough to knock the man out, but it did cause him to loosen his grip on Captain Becker long enough for the soldier to throw him over his shoulder and tackle him to the floor.

"Who are you people? Why are you here?"

The attacker only grinned at him, and Becker punched him, furious at this repeated invasion of his territory.

"Tell me!"

The only answer he received was, once again, the smug grin, and then they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps and voices approaching in the distance. Becker loosened his grip for a second, and now it was the attacker's turn to use his opponent's weakness. The fraction of a second that Becker had looked away had been enough for the attacker to draw a knife and aim it at the soldier. One quick movement brought Becker far enough to the side so that the knife only slashed the side of his shirt instead of being buried in his stomach, but the stinging pain made his anger increase. With a grunt, he threw another punch, and soon the two men were rolling around on the floor, both struggling for possession of the weapon.

Jess wanted to help again, but they were moving so fast she was scared she'd hit the wrong man if she tried using the EMD. Additionally, the voices of what she assumed were more armed men were coming ever closer. Needing to do at least something useful, Jess dragged Connor's equipment inside the room to be ready to keep it safe, and returned outside to the still fighting men. She was still holding Becker's EMD, pointing it at the fighting men indecisively. For a second she considered shocking them both and then dragging Becker inside the room until he woke up again, but that seemed a risky plan.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, the fight stopped with the other man slumping over and Becker's hand emerging with the bloody knife. He looked up at Jess, and for a second they stared at each other, frozen in shock as the hostage-taker bled out on the dirty concrete.

Suddenly voices, much louder than before, emerged from the other end of the car park, a bullet whizzed past Becker and buried itself into the door right next to Jess. She screamed and Becker jumped up and lunged at her, pushing her through the doors and shutting them both just in time to keep out the array of bullets following the first one. The missiles hit the outer of the two doors with a terrifying noise, but the double-enforced steal- and lead-doors held fast, allowing them to finally catch their breaths. It took a few seconds for Jess to trust her own voice again, before she asked:

"Do you think we're safe in here?"

"This room has protected us from a gamma ray. I certainly hope it'll keep us safe from further attacks until outside help arrives." He sounded calm, and rationally, Jess knew he was right – this, after all, was the whole point of the panic room. Nevertheless, the panic was still there, lurking in the back of her mind and ready to turn into full blown hysterics.

"But no one has called for outside help yet. Oh God, what if someone else decides to come in today? We have to warn everyone!" The thought of the others, who, after all, were in much greater danger than she was, helped Jess to calm down again. There were things to do, she'd need to be efficient, and she knew how to do that, even in stressful situations.

"There's a secure land-line separate from the ARC system." He motioned to a surprisingly old-fashioned telephone receiver attached to the far wall, and she struggled to her feet and walked over, a little unsteadily, but with a determined look on her face.

"Perfect. I'll call Lester, tell him to get the police moving, or Special Forces, or someone. And then we'll warn the others to stay away. And we should start sending over the data from Connor's hard-drive. If they do come in here, we have to destroy it."

As Jess started making plans and calls, Becker found himself full of respect for the courage his young colleague had shown so far. He had already been impressed by the quick thinking she had shown in hiding from the attackers and figuring out what they wanted before she had swung his EMD at the attacker's head. Without her, he would not have been able to shake the man off. Now, however, it became apparent to him that she put on her usual efficient attitude to distract herself from the shock of the morning's events. She was pale, and her hands were trembling as she took the phone and dialled Lester's number – which, impressively, she knew by heart. He was able to persuade her to at least sit down while she explained the details of their current situation to an incredulous Lester.

Meanwhile, Becker watched the little screen which showed them the CCTV image from the other side of the door. A group of five heavily armed men was visible, four of them inspecting the door while the fifth one was kneeling by his injured comrade, the one who had attacked Becker. One of the other men turned to him, apparently asking him something, and Becker had to suppress a chill at the kneeling man's unmistakeable gesture: The hand, moved vertically across the throat as if to slit it, told him that he had just killed a man. It had not been the first time, and yet it was something he had always hated and tried to avoid as much as possible.

It didn't help that Jess had chosen that very moment to stand next to him and watch, and had grown even paler at seeing the scene.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I'm sorry you had to do that." Her voice, although shaky, was warm and compassionate, and he had to resist the urge to hug her. It was things like this that made her so special, he thought, the fact that she tried to cheer him up when clearly she herself was in need of some comfort. He quickly pushed the thought aside, knowing it would not do to dwell on the mystery that was Jess Parker right now.

"What did Lester say?"

"It might take some time, but they're trying to get everyone out as fast as possible. Special Forces are on their way."

"Good." He hated that there were people in danger outside, colleagues, and he could do absolutely nothing to help them.

"He also wants to talk to you. Know what kinds of weapons they have. I already told Lester how many there are, how many hostages they've taken, and what we think they want."

Becker nodded and picked up the receiver to give his boss a detailed description of the invaders' weapons and their presumed location in the building. After they had informed Lester about everything and started to send over the data from Connor's hard-drive straight to Lester's, Connor's and Matt's home computers, the men outside had left, taking with them their dead accomplice. Suddenly, there was nothing left to do but wait.

A/N: So, I'm trying my hand at a bit of action stuff, which I don't generally do (mostly because I don't have the kind of crazy brilliant ideas other authors have). I know this is a rather long chapter, and they won't all be that long, but I didn't want to interrupt the action before it even started.

The title is borrowed from the song "And Darling" by Tegan and Sara and doesn't really have much to do with the story other than I somehow associate it with Jess and Becker.


	2. Chapter 2

I just realised I never do this, so: I don't own any of it.

Looking around the panic room with its shelves full of practical stuff (he assumed), it occurred to Becker that the best thing to do right now was use the time to restore their strength, which he was sure they'd need again. As he stood up to get some water, there was a sudden burning pain in his side, and he remembered the injury he had sustained during the knife fight. Although, he mused, was it still called a knife fight if it wasn't so much a fight with knives as a fight over possession of a knife?

"Becker? Are you all right?"

That was Jess, her voice still shaky and tentative. He must have shown signs of pain, because she looked worried. Again he felt a little sting, which this time had nothing to do with his injury and everything with the way her eyes went wide and focused intently on him.

"I just remembered the little scratch I got during the fight." Jess immediately jumped up and was at his side in an instant, guiding him over to a bench and forcing him to lie down. He let her fuss over him, knowing activity helped calm her frayed nerves, and enjoying the attention just a little bit as well. The next minutes she spent carefully cleaning and bandaging the shallow cut on his side and, aided by his instructions, checking for bruised or cracked ribs. Becker's face was also beginning to throb where the attacker had punched him, and the faint metallic taste in his mouth told him that his lip was split. Jess helped him sit up and started treating these bruises as well, standing before him and making him bend his head back to look up at her.

Despite everything, he could not avoid a thrill shooting through him as he looked up into her face, the worry now replaced by concentration. He secretly loved when she made what he called her 'ADD face' – she knit her eyebrows together, pursed her lips ever so slightly, and there was absolutely nothing to distract her from her current task. It was quite intense to be at the end of that look – to have all that attention directed at him. He had been patched up many times over the past years, but never by such a pretty nurse – and one he seemed to cared about him so much. It felt nice, much more than he liked to admit.

She was finished now, running her fingertips gently over his face to inspect her work. He had to suppress a blissful shiver at the feather-light touch, and apparently, she noticed. They both froze for a moment, looking into each other's eyes, their breathing getting shallow. The little contact points of her fingertips on his skin seemed to crackle with energy. He rationalised that it was probably due to the heightened level of adrenaline in his blood, but he was still impossibly aware of her close proximity to him, of the heat radiating from her small body. She was standing between his legs, and he'd only have to lift his hands to put them on her hips, draw her closer and...

A voice suddenly blared out over the intercom connecting the room to the ARC, and he shot to his feet, forcing Jess to jump back to avoid him bumping into her.

"We are not here to take any innocent lives. You have taken something that we want. If you want to avoid bloodshed, you need only give it to us. But if you refuse to cooperatte, we will have to start killing the hostages."

The voice sounded cold and deadly serious, but they both thought, rather naively, that it might have been an empty threat, and did not respond. Indeed, the message was repeated only once before the intercom went dead again, and they both hoped the invaders had decided on a different tactic.

Unfortunately, they had not. Soon after the hostage-takers had addressed them, the CCTV monitor showed a group of the men returning, dragging along one of Becker's men. He was bleeding slightly from a gash on his forehead, looking dazed as the men positioned him in front of the camera. The cold voice spoke up again over the intercom.

"As you can see, we were not joking. We want what you are hiding in there. If you do not hand it over, this man will die. He is one of your men, Captain Becker, one you picked out and trained extensively. Surely you care for his life?" Dread and anger rose in Becker at the way he was being manipulated, but he knew, now that they were in here, there was no way back. If he judged these men correctly, giving them what they wanted would not ensure the hostages' safety. He quickly pressed the speech button on the intercom to respond.

"We are not negotiating. The authorities have been informed about the situation. Special forces will have surrounded the building by now. There is no way out for you, and nothing to be gained by harming these people."

Unfortunately his arguments were wasted on their negotiation partner. Becker knew what would happen seconds before it did, and yet he could only watch helplessly as one of the men lifted a gun to his comrade's head and pulled the trigger.

There was no sound on the CCTV, but they could hear the dull bang through the closed doors as the young man collapsed onto the concrete floor. Jess gasped, and Becker didn't have to look at her to know there were tears in her eyes.

"We have to stop this now. We have to give them what they want before they kill more people!" She was starting for the door, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and held her back.

"We can't. You said so yourself. This is more important. We cannot let Connor's research fall into their hands. You know what happened with Burton, and he didn't even intend to do harm."

She nodded, reluctantly, and turned back around to face him.

„I can't believe they actually killed him."

"I know." She looked lost and scared, exactly the way he felt. Sure, they had made it to the safe room, so excepting the use of explosives or a tank – thank God Lester had not granted him that wish – they should be safe. But at what price? If they wanted to protect Connor's data, they would have to watch their colleagues being killed one by one until someone from the outside could intervene. He was the head of security, it had been his job to protect these people, and he had failed.

"Are you ready to give yourselves up now?"

He could feel Jess flinch beside him as the voice spoke up again, and placed a comforting hand on her back, a gesture that served to strengthen himself as well.

"If you do not come out now, we will kill another one of your colleagues every half-hour."

A strangled shriek escaped Jess and she stumbled backwards, looking at him with a horrified expression.

"We can't let them get to us." He strode over to the control panel, but was momentarily baffled by the multitude of buttons, dials and switches. "How do you turn this thing off?" As he fumbled for an off-switch, the voice continued to taunt him.

"Captain Becker, I am shocked at your callousness. Your men trust you. They look up to you. They certainly would not expect you to let them die for your own safety." The words got to him, stirring guilts and worries he struggled with on an almost daily basis, and his shaky hands had trouble grasping the control panel at all. Thankfully, Jess' small hands closed over his trembling fingers, steadying them for a moment before they moved on to find the right switch to end his torture. Her hands were not shaking, and he was impressed by how quickly she had got herself under control again.

"You're right. We need to stay in here and keep the data safe, at least until we've sent it all to Connor, Matt and Lester. Once that is done, we can destroy the hard-drive and prototype and give ourselves up." Her suggestion was the best possible plan, but the mere thought of her in the hands of those ruthless killers was unbearable.

"No. You're not giving yourself up."

"We'll discuss that when the time comes."

He didn't respond, but he was determined not to let her give herself up, trying not to think of the many discussions with her he'd lost since they had started working together.

Time passed excruciatingly slowly as they waited with bared nerves – for someone to confirm they had received all the data, for Lester to give them some news of the special forces operation or, and this they dreaded the entire time, for the terrorists to appear in front of the room with another hostage. But all remained silent.

With the computer busy uploading Connor's data and no sign of the hostage-takers, there was absolutely nothing for them to do or distract them with. Jess had sunk to the floor next to the computer, staring blankly at the blue doors. She had only been in here twice. The first time, when Lester had personally shown her around the building, she had been impressed with the fortified and well-stocked room. And yet, the bare walls and hard benches, the first-aid kits and supplies that would put any bomb shelter to shame made her uneasy. She had always wished she'd never have to spend time in here, and thankfully, the only time they had needed the room so far, she had been unconscious. Now, however, with the image of two men dying in front of her eyes imprinted on her mind and the enormity of what it was they were keeping safe in here weighing on her, Jess felt increasingly claustrophobic.

It didn't particularly help her frayed nerves that Becker was slowly pacing up and down the room, dis- and re-assembling his EMD every few minutes, his abrupt movements and the sound of his heavy boots on the concrete wearing Jess down even more, until she finally snapped.

"Will you stop doing that! You're making me nervous!" He stopped mid-pace to look at her in surprise. He had never heard her use such a harsh tone. Then again, they had never been in such a situation before, and the pressure was probably getting to her.

"I'm so scared that they'll kill someone else." As quickly as it had flared up, the irritated tone was gone from her voice again. So was everything else he loved about it – the optimism, the cheerfulness that generally succeeded to make his day a bit brighter.

He wanted to tell her something comforting, promise that no-one else would get hurt, but he knew it would have been a lie. It was only a matter of time until the kidnappers reappeared, and there was absolutely nothing they could do except wait.

"Damnit, couldn't Connor have made a copy of his bloody research already?" Frustrated, he punched the wall next to him, but immediately regretted it as he saw her flinch.

"Sorry. It's just … Connor's data is the only thing that could stop all this. If he had already made a copy, we could just make the data useless and give it up, and then no-one else would have to die. You wouldn't even need to leave the room. I'd bring it out myself."

"Oh, no no no! There's no way I'm staying in here all by myself while you go out to face these criminals." Before he could protest, she had clambered to her feet, raising herself to her full height in front of him.

"Do you know how horrible it is sometimes to sit at that desk and worry about all of you outside with monsters and mad persons and not be able to do a single thing to help you? I'm getting sick of it, to be honest. While you get to go out and actually do something, all I can do is worry. And if you go out there, I won't stay in here and worry even more. You of all people..."

She trailed off, flustered, and again there was this sense of something in the air, something she had woken up when she stepped up so close to him. She had been poking him in the chest with her index finger, stressing every one of her angry words, and he had grabbed her hand to stop her. Now they were just standing there, his hand clasped around hers, the tip of her finger still on his chest and her pulse beating fast under his thumb on her wrist. She was breathing hard, her cheeks were flushed and her hair tousled, and if he hadn't still been aware of their current problematic situation, he could have easily imagined a different scenario that would make her look like that. She had, in fact, appeared in quite a number of images that had begun to pop into his head at increasingly inappropriate moments over the past months. Right now, he reminded himself, thinking of her like that was probably as inappropriate as it could get. He forced himself to break the spell, let go of her hand and turn away from her under the pretence of checking the CCTV screen for any sign of the terrorists.

Jess blinked as he stepped away from her, trying to make sense of what had just happened. She had let her mouth run away with her, as she so often did around him. But the way he had reacted... that look he had given her, for the second time that day... his warm hand holding hers... It had all felt maddeningly like something she would like to experience under very different circumstances, and preferably in a very different place. Her bedroom, for example. As that thought popped into her head, Jess had to suppress a small squeal. Sure, she'd thought about him like that. She had, after all, fancied him from the very first time he stepped into the ARC looking as if he had no idea what the word 'fun' even meant. He had proven her wrong, and she had quickly proceeded to develop an embarrassingly obvious crush on him.

Apart from the dinosaurs and the time-travelling, Becker was the one thing about her job likely to drive her crazy one day. He appeared to be nothing more than slightly amused by her childish antics. And yet, there was the chocolate. And the increasing amount of flirting. His worry about her during the allergic shock, which she remembered only dimly but had been informed of gleefully by Abby and Emily. ("Security stuff," Abby had snorted, "yeah, right!")

This, however, the physical pull she felt when they were close – this was new. Maybe it was due to the extreme situation, the adrenaline, the worry, the possibility that they might not make it out of the ARC alive. Whatever the reason, she had trouble keeping thoughts out of her head that were normally reserved for sleepless nights and, occasionally, slow days at the ADD. Confused, ashamed, and unnecessarily flushed, Jess returned to her place on the floor by the computer.

A/N: I hope this wasn't too repetitive when it came to Jess' feelings for Becker. What can I say, it's just on her mind a lot. Also, great thanks to those of you who reviewed. I try not to be too narcissistic about my stories, but when 'So many days' only got two reviews (but thanks even more to those two people), I was getting a little worried. So, just thanks for the support.


	3. Chapter 3

Silence reigned again in the safe room. There was no news from Lester other than that Special Forces had surrounded the building, but did not dare storm it, as there were still about fifteen hostages in the ops room. Becker resumed his pacing, and Jess simply stared at the computer until her eyes hurt, but the data transfer was still nowhere near complete.

Becker's abrupt stop in front of the screen tore her out of her trance. The hostage-takers were approaching them again with another one of their colleagues in tow, a man, about fifty, whom Jess dimly remembered as having something to do with accounting. Dreading what would happen, she got up and stood next to Becker in front of the monitor.

"Is the data transfer finished?" She shook her head.

"It will be at least another half-hour. And then I'll have to modify it before we can hand it over. Do you think we can convince them to give us some more time?"

"I doubt it. Giving us more time to copy the data is exactly what they don't want."

Nevertheless, he walked over to the intercom to try and negotiate with the hostage-takers, but Jess only heard him dimly through a haze of fear. Transfixed, she stood in front of the screen, staring at the trembling man with the gun to his head who vaguely resembled her uncle. From somewhere far away, she heard Becker yell something, then there was the by-now sickeningly familiar bang, and she watched as the life left the eyes of yet another person standing no more than ten feet away from her. Yet another person they had been unable to save.

Jess had slid to the floor after the men had left, dragging the dead hostage with them, and had now been staring at the wall for fifteen minutes without moving, maybe even without blinking. Unable to stand the sight of her pale, shell-shocked face any longer, Becker racked his brain for some way of distracting her.

"D'you wanna play a game?" Slowly, she turned her head to look at him, baffled.

"A game?"

"You know – Poker, or something. Or we could listen to music, maybe? The computer here has Internet access, right?"

"We are not listening to music! What is the matter with you? Our colleagues are dying out there."

Her tone was sharp, and he looked sheepish.

"I just wanted to distract you..."

"Well, you shouldn't! I'm not going to listen to music and play games while my colleagues are killed off one by one by these psychopathic bastards because I can't solve this stupid problem with the data fast enough!"

"They won't hold that against you. They will understand you had to protect Connor's research."

"No they won't! I'm their boss. I answer directly to Lester, I have higher security clearance, I earn more, and I give them orders and instructions. And now I'm the only one with a reasonable chance of getting out of this alive, tucked safely in the panic room with their head of security while they're being used as gambling chips. No, I'm pretty sure they won't understand!"

For the second time that day, she had raised her voice with him, and he could not blame her. She was in what had to be one of the most horrible situations of her life, and his attempt to distract her had been ridiculous. She felt guilty about the fact that she was safe while her colleagues were dying, and helpless because she was unable to do anything. However, Becker knew that, by realising that Connor's dangerous research had to be kept from the criminals, she had probably already saved thousands, if not millions of lives, even though she could not see it like that right now.

Sitting down next to her, he put his arm around her shoulder and gently pulled her closer. She struggled against him for a few seconds, still upset, before accepting the embrace and burying her face in his neck. Shortly after, he could feel hot wetness on his skin and knew she was crying.

He marvelled at how different this felt from the contact they had shared mere minutes ago, a bit ashamed for having felt like that at all in such a situation. The death of his two colleagues had brought him back to reality with a thud. Of all the times to feel attracted to Jess, this had to be the absolute worst.

They remained in silence for a few more minutes, but a furtive glance at his wristwatch told Becker that another half-hour had passed. Any minute now, the terrorists would reappear with another hostage in tow, another innocent person doomed to die.

He looked at the laptop to find out if maybe the data transfer was complete, but he couldn't really make much of the symbols and numbers flitting across the screen.

"Jess?" Her head snapped up from his shoulder, and the look of terror on her face immediately told him she understood what was about to happen.

"Is the data..." She shook her head no before he could finish the question, and his heart sank.

Then he looked over at the screen, and sure enough, a group of people emerged from the other end of the garage. Desperate to do something, Becker went over to the telephone and called Lester to ask him if there was any progress on the outside. But, as he well knew, the ARC's security and locking system were airtight. He had made sure of that himself, and now it was going to bite him in the ass. He switched seamlessly from yelling at Lester to yelling at the kidnappers when they positioned themselves in front of the camera and repeated their demands once again. Again, his pleas went unheard, as did Jess', who came up next to him halfway through the debate, tears screaming down her face as she begged the men to spare their colleague's life. To no avail: For the third time, the hollow bang of the gunshot echoed through the ARC.

Jess was leaning against the wall, her head lowered as if she didn't have the strength to hold it up anymore. The hostage-takers disappeared again, and Becker sat down on a bench, utterly at a loss what to do. Jess, who had been holding up quite well, seemed to be quickly losing control of herself, tears streaming down her cheeks as her shoulders shook. He wanted to go over and comfort her like he had before, but could not find the strength to do so in him.

For long, dreary, stultifying minutes they sat like that, both feeling scared and isolated despite the fact that they were not really alone.

Eventually, however, Jess' dazed, empty look became too much for him. It was worse than all the crippling guilt and helplessness he was feeling, and it finally made his strength return. He would not give up. For his colleagues, both the dead and the ones still in the hands of the hostage-takers, and for Jess, he would find a way to end this situation. He stood up, trying to look optimistic, but quickly feeling a little sheepish when the sudden action received no reaction from his catatonic friend. Trying to shake her up, he announced:

"This has got to stop. I will not let them kill any more of our colleagues." It took her a few seconds, but gradually, her eyes focused on him instead of the wall.

"But how will you stop them?" He hadn't really thought of a plan, as such, but considering there was nothing he could do from in here, the answer was quite obvious.

"I'm going out there. By now, there should be eleven hostage-takers. If I play my cards right, I can take them down. The important thing though, is that you stay in here."

"So you're going to go out there, guns blazing, to pull a John McClane?"

He looked at her, confused.

"Die Hard? Bruce Willis frees a bunch of hostages in an office building all by himself? Major nineties action film? Come on!" He ignored the reference, although, under different circumstances, it would have made him smile that she compared him to Bruce Willis.

"I realise the plan's not very sound..." Fortunately for him, making plans was exactly what Jess excelled at, and the promise of some sophisticated planning and hacking revived Jess within seconds, as he could see from the way her eyes lit up and colour returned to her cheeks

"Well, you've got one advantage over John McClane...", he looked at her inquisitively. "You've got me. I'll get a remote access to my desktop at the hub so I can help you navigate around the hostage-takers. With CCTV and motion sensors, I should be able to give you some pretty sound back-up."

He had expected her to protest, to insist on going with him, but he wasn't really surprised at her cooperation either. As much as the situation troubled her, she was their field coordinator, and as such used to staying calm and making rational decisions no matter what. She may not have been dealing well with sitting here and watching people die – well, who would have -, but now that she had something to do, she was quickly returning to her full efficiency. His plan was the best chance they had, and she knew that she was most useful in the safe room behind her computer. While she whirled around and started typing into the computer, he started equipping himself with a kevlar vest and as many weapons as he could carry, glad for his decision to install a weaponry cupboard in the corner.

They told Lester about the plan, and he agreed to have Special Forces stage an attack as a distraction for Becker to get out of the room. Minutes later, everything was ready, and they watched as the men outside appeared to receive news of the raid. Two of them promptly left, leaving behind only one man whom Becker could deal with easily. Just in case, Jess had remote-started an exploration robot from the machine-room next door, which entered the garage, causing the man to turn around and take a few steps away from the door.

Becker grabbed his weapon, but stopped to look at her for a second before opening the door. If this had been a film, she was sure this was the moment where hero and heroine kissed for potentially the last time before he went into battle. Unfortunately, she felt not at all like a Hollywood heroine, but rather like the confused bystander who had got in way over her head. She suddenly felt the urge to stop him from this suicidal mission, but instead, she just grabbed his hand and wished him good luck. He squeezed her hand gently, looking into her eyes in a way that she knew would make it even harder to let him go.

"Stay in here as long as possible, all right? I need you to be safe."

Jess nodded, unable to say anything, and then he had opened the first door and slipped out. She took one – hopefully not last – long look at him before closing the door after him, and shortly after, she watched on the monitor as he took out the guard in front of the door.

She was alone.

A/N: So, as I'll be away for a few days but I did promise you I'd update, here's another little piece of Jess and Becker's shitty day. I hope you don't mind the rate at which I'm killing off ARC employees, but it's not like the show is any nicer about this.

I just looked it up on imdb, and Die Hard is actually from 1988, so please tell me you know this awesome film, or I'll feel really old ;-).

Also, as English isn't my first language, please point out any mistakes I make, unusual/badly translated idioms or things that just sound weird. I'd appreciate the learning experience.


	4. Chapter 4

Knowing Becker needed her, Jess had altered Connor's data by simply changing one number in one of the parameters and then waiting for the computer to replace it in all the files. This would hopefully make the files useless without being too obvious to spot while giving Jess ample time to monitor the surveillance system and warn Becker about approaching hostage-takers. So far, he had taken out several of them, and was getting close to the main operating area where the other hostages were being held.

A blinking message on the screen informed Jess that the computer was finally done replacing the numbers, and at the same time, she registered, out of the corner of her eye, a small group of men step up to the CCTV camera outside the door. This time they were accompanied by a lab assistant a few years older than herself. Jess' breath hitched as she looked at the woman and realized she had talked to her just the day before. The woman had told her she was expecting a baby, her first, and there was in fact a little tell-tale bump on her middle. The hostage the men had condemned to die next was pregnant. Determined, Jess shut down the computer. This was it. She would not let that woman get hurt.

Taking a deep breath and praying that Becker had managed to at least knock out most of the men, Jess pressed the button on the intercom.

"You've won. You're getting the data. But you have to give us something in return. You have to let the other hostages go."

There was a hesitant silence at the other end, and she quickly talked on.

"You don't have much time left. It's been hours, the police must have a team in place, ready to come in and shoot you all. Every further second you wait, every victim you shoot makes it more difficult for you to get away. Let the hostages go, I'll get the data and you can get away."

There was still silence, and she closed her eyes, praying they would agree to her terms. She was not the only one: In a room close to the ops room, with three unconscious criminals as company, Becker was listening to the exchange on his comm.

"All right. We will let the hostages go. But how do we know you will live up to your end of the bargain?"

"Let half of them go as a sign of your good-will, including the woman you have brought here, and I will open the door. Let the rest of them go, and I will tell you the access code to the hard-drive."

"Agreed."

It was Becker's turn now to close his eyes and pray. Jess was about to turn herself into a hostage. With the other hostages freed and the building surrounded by the police, Jess would be their ticket to freedom. They would take her with them to the end, and when they wouldn't need her any more... He shuddered to think of it. He'd just have to be faster. To take them out before they had finished their business here. A little more roughly than necessary, Becker bound the men's hands and feet with the plastic cable binders he had brought – en masse – from the safe room before collecting their weapons and marching out of the room determinedly. They would not get to harm Jess.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later, after Lester had phoned Jess to confirm that the hostages the invaders had let go had indeed made it outside safely, Jess stepped up to the blue doors of the safe room. She was scared, but there was no way back now. If she didn't deliver the hard-drive, the criminals would kill the other hostages in a heartbeat. Besides, she told herself, she would not be in their power for long. Becker would come and get her out. Taking a deep breath, she slung the duffel-bag with the hard-drive over her shoulder and opened the doors.<p>

Within seconds, she was being pulled out of the room, her hands tied in front of her. It took them mere seconds to notice that Becker was not in the room any more, but the fact that they only found this out now filled her with relief – so Becker had managed to remain undetected until now. That considerably heightened her chances of getting out of this alive, Jess thought as she was being roughly pulled towards the ops room and pushed in front of their leader.

The man looked surprisingly ordinary for an evil mastermind who had managed to invade a top secret government facility and then proceeded to start killing its staff. There was nothing extraordinary on him, not even a scar or a pair of icy, cruel eyes, or anything else one generally saw on evil masterminds in films and books. In fact, he looked quite pleasant – a normal, middle-aged man, with greying hair but a trim figure for his age, which she approximated at about fifty.

After seizing her up with a long glance, he addressed her. That was when he turned into a villain: His voice was so cold it made Jess shiver, as she realised there was absolutely no compassion within this man. If she hadn't struck a bargain with his men, they would have killed the pregnant woman in a heartbeat, and she knew instinctively that he would not show any chivalry towards her.

"You and your soldier friend have caused us a lot of grief these past few hours, young lady. It is only fair that you suffer a bit for it, considering you managed to get three of your colleagues killed, don't you think? Just in case you do have any heroic notions, I'd like to remind you that there is an almost infinite amount of pain we can and will cause you if you try to trick us. And let's not forget that you are a woman – a young, attractive one at that. There's no telling what that might do to my men. So you'd better weigh your options really carefully."

While the leader held this little speech, one of his men held a gun to her head, while another ran the tip of a very sharp knife up the side of her thigh, cutting through her tights and leaving a thin red line in its wake that she only realised now was her blood, so numb was she with fear. Her skirt had hiked up with the movement of the knife, and the man replaced the knife with his hand and caressed her thigh with a lecherous smirk on his face.

Jess gulped and tried to suppress a shiver of fear and disgust. She had initially planned to try and gain some time by not telling them the password right away, not sure if the adjustments she had made to Connor's data would be enough to make them useless – and if they would not detect them. The gruesome picture of potential harm her capturer had hinted at made her rethink that decision.

Unfortunately, her silence was apparently taken for defiance, and before Jess could open her mouth, the man had punched her in the face. Pain exploded in front of her eyes like white light as her head snapped sideways and she screamed.

* * *

><p>They must have taken out Jess' comm unit without turning it off, because Becker could still hear muffled talking – and then Jess' scream. Tightening his grip on the EMD, he crept on down the corridor. He had already met and knocked out two of the hostage-takers and taken their guns, so he was well-stocked with arms. Knowing they now had Jess pushed him on further. He would get these bastards before they could hurt any more of his colleagues, and especially Jess – even if he had to kill every last one of them.<p>

The next hostage-taker to turn the corner and face him simply had bad luck – Becker was worried and angry, and the criminal was a convenient punching-bag. Within seconds, the man was out cold on the floor, cuffed with his own belt, disarmed and bleeding from a broken nose. Becker's personal head count told him that all the other hostage-takers had to be in or around the ops room, so he headed there. It was time to end this.

* * *

><p>AN: I haven't been writing a little longer than I intended, but now I'm back to continue with this story. I just hope it'll lead me somewhere. As for your reviews: Someone pointed out that, if they were in the midst of a hostage situation, the last thing they'd be concerned with would be their feelings for a co-worker, and actually, I have been worried about this, because it is the biggest plot weakness in my story. I can only hope my writing makes you forget about that weakness and enjoy the relationship development either way.


	5. Chapter 5

Jess had watched with a sick feeling in her stomach as the men logged on to the computer and started going through Connor's files. At least their work on the computer distracted them enough to not pay any close attention to her any more. After she had told him the password, the leader had lost all interest in her. There was only one man standing behind her with his hand on her shoulder to grab her if she tried to run, but at least he had taken down the gun.

So far, the criminals had not noticed any of the subtle changes Jess had made to Connor's files, and she doubted that they would any time soon. But if they realised she had made the data useless, she knew they would kill her. Although, she figured, even if they didn't find out about the data, they'd still have to get out eventually, and she was their only hostage. Either way, her prospects were anything but rosy.

As Jess was pondering this, there was an unexpected noise outside – banging and a stifled sound that might have been a pained groan. Jess held her breath, instinctively knowing that this was it – Becker was here to take out the last of the hostage-takers and get her out of here. She knew it.

While the leader of the terrorists and his men were all concentrating on the door, listening for more sounds from outside, Jess quickly tried to recall what Abby had taught her about self-defence moves: To shake off an attacker grabbing you from behind, you had to jam your elbow first into his stomach, then his face, and then step on his foot. All right, she repeated in her head: Solarplexus, Nose, Foot. Maybe wearing four-inch stilettos – not the best choice so far - would pay off after all.

With a wordless hand gesture, the leader of the group sent out two of his men, leaving Jess with him and three of his men in the room. Those were good odds, Jess thought to herself. Becker could take out four men in his sleep, she was convinced. He had, after all, taken out all the others.

The men carefully crept towards the door and pushed it open slowly in case Becker was right outside, but apparently, he wasn't. Seconds after the two men had exited the room, there was another series of bangs, more of them this time. After that, there was silence for a few beats before the door slammed open again.

One of the terrorists reappeared, but from the unnatural way he walked, it quickly became obvious that he did not do so voluntarily: He was being pushed by someone hiding behind him, using him as a human shield. Then Becker's head and arm popped out from behind the man, aimed and shot one of the kidnappers. Jess suppressed a squeal, not sure whether out of fear or relief. As glad as she was that Becker was here to end all this, she was well aware that he, like the kidnappers, was now carrying actual weapons, and that all of this could still end very, very badly for them.

As Becker had probably anticipated, the hostage-takers' leader tried to shoot him, but his response merely hit his own man, while Becker ducked behind a table and disappeared out of sight.

Jess suddenly realised that the hostage-takers could end Becker's attack very quickly if they remembered they still had her as a hostage. So, when Becker reappeared to take out the next man - this time, Jess noticed, with his EMD so as not to kill anyone unless he absolutely had to – Jess knew this was her moment.

Using all her strength, she rammed her elbow into her attacker's stomach as hard as she could, then brought it up and back, hitting the man's face with a satisfying thud, finishing the basic self-defence move by slamming her stiletto heel down on his shoe. That last move was ineffectual due to her attacker's heavy boots, but he had already loosened his grip enough for her to lurch forward, grab the next best thing – Connor's hard-drive – and whirl around to whack the man over the head with it.

While he stumbed around, disoriented, Jess, for the second time that day, ducked, crawled under a table, and tried to remain very quiet while she fumbled off the rope on her wrists with shaking fingers. Sure, Becker was here, and, as far as Jess could tell there were only two men left, but she could see neither Becker nor the head villain of the group, and the man she had just got rid of seemed to be doing better by the second.

Then, just as the rope slid off her hands, Jess saw it: An EMD, lying no more than three feet away from her. The moment she laid eyes on it, she could see the man she had attacked approaching her. Without a second thought, Jess threw herself forward onto the ground, grabbed the EMD and fired at the man, two times just to be sure, until he crumbled to the ground. Only now did she have time to look around for Becker, who was facing the leader of the terrorists at the other end of the room. As far as she could tell, they were both unarmed, but with criminals, one could never be sure. Or with Becker, come to think of it.

Jess had increasingly felt like she was trapped in some Hollywood action-film, and so it might have been her imagination, but she watched, in actual slow-motion, as Becker and the terrorists leader both went for the handguns hidden behind their backs, brought them to their front, and shot. Her breath hitched in her throat as she saw the criminal's outstretched hand pointing a gun at Becker, his name freezing on her tongue. But she knew, seconds before she saw the man stagger backwards and hit the ground, that Becker had been faster. And this time, he had not used an EMD.

With the last and worst of the terrorists eliminated, Jess could hear nothing but the ringing in her ears; no more gunshots or EMD blasts, and she felt it was safe to emerge from her hiding spot. She scrambled to her feet, her and Becker now the only two people still standing in the room, and met his eyes across overturned tables and unconscious criminals.

Shell-shocked, they walked towards each other, meeting in the middle of the room and stopping inches apart. For a moment, they were both silent, unable to comprehend that they had actually made it through this day alive. She wanted to hug him, to press every inch of herself against him just to make sure he was really here and well, but he moved first, gently taking her face in his hands. The contact was every bit as electrifying and fulfilling as the long hug she had been planning, even though she had to flinch when he brushed over her bruised cheekbone.

"Are you all right?"

His voice was as soft as his hands, and her breath hitched as they moved to her neck and he bent towards her, his eyes still locked on hers.

"Never been better. You?"

"I'm fine. You were..."

"Brilliant?" She supplied, suddenly feeling giddy and breaking into a huge smile which he mirrored.

"Yes. Absolutely bloody brilliant."

"You weren't too bad yourself, Officer McClane!" He chuckled, and, in an unusually tender gesture for him, touched his forehead to hers.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No. I gave in and told them the password after just the one punch."

"Good. You should not have tried to keep it from them at all. I couldn't bear the thought..."

His voice broke and he just looked at her with an intensity that made her belly flutter and her heart beat faster, already accelerated by the adrenaline released during the fight.

Unfortunately, Becker was interrupted by the special forces soldiers bursting in - rather late and at the most inappropriate moment, Jess thought. Lester was going to get her complaint about this.

A/N: So this was it – the big showdown, which I found very difficult to write, so it turned out rather short. Just imagine it with lots of slow-motion.

As for your reviews: In my notes to the last chapter, I addressed something someone said in a review, and some of you said some very nice and encouraging things concerning the problem. I didn't want it to look like I was whining about one critical review, but I still appreciated the support.

And for those of you who liked (and reviewed) this story so far: There's more. Maybe even much more if I come up with more good ideas.


	6. Chapter 6

After Becker and Jess had ended the hostage-taking, Special Forces searched the building, but of course their colleagues – minus Abby and Connor, who were still away on their trip – didn't wait until the building was declared safe. Seconds after the first soldiers had interrupted Jess and Becker's little moment, they all burst into the room and surrounded Jess while Becker extricated himself from their hugs to speak to the soldiers. There was a blur of relieved hugs from Matt and Emily, an unusually emotional pat on the shoulder from Lester, and a swarm of paramedics trying to examine her despite her insistence that she was fine. Becker and his second-in-command handcuffed the unconscious attackers and had them transferred to the holding cells, and Jess refused to leave the ops room without him. After the events of the day, it felt like she was only safe as long as he was around. Not to mention he was the only one of the team who had also been through the trauma of watching their colleagues die right in front of their eyes.

Apparently, Becker felt the same, because every few minutes, he looked searchingly at her as if to make sure she was still there. After the remaining four kidnappers had been sent to the holding cells or the medical station, Becker strode over to Lester, who had just finished updating the minister of defence about the outcome of the situation, intending to give him a brief report of what had happened while they had been too busy to communicate. Lester, however, cut him off.

"Don't worry about that right now. We know the most important things already, and we can fill in the blanks on Monday. Have you been looked at by the paramedics? I understand you have been injured during a fight with one of the hostage-takers." It took Becker a moment to remember that incident – so much had happened since then.

"It was only a scratch. Jess already took care of it." Repeating his cursory sweep of the room, he suddenly realised Jess was no longer in sight. "Where is Jess, by the way?" Lester looked around as well.

"She was here a moment ago, arguing with the paramedics. Maybe she was taken to the medical station after all?"

"Why would she be? I thought they already checked on her." Immediately, worry rose up in him again. After the events of the day, Becker felt the need to keep the young woman close. After all, his men had not yet finished their thorough search of the building, so there might still be hostage-takers on the loose. Or had medics discovered some serious injury when they examined her? A concussion, or worse? She had been alone in that room with those men for some time. Cold dread rose in him, and he tore off towards the medical station.

In the medical station, however, the only person being treated was one of the kidnappers. Jess also wasn't in the kitchen, the staff room or any of the bathrooms – he checked. By the time he finally found her in an unused office, sitting across from the Special Forces coordinator, Becker had reached a point very near hysteria. It didn't particularly help his murderous mood that Jess looked close to tears, and he had to restrain himself from punching the man interrogating her.

"What the hell is going on here? Who authorised you to take Miss Parker away from the main area without informing me or Mr. Lester?"

"I am debriefing Miss Parker on the events of the day, and I do not need to be authorised, I am the head of this operation." Becker looked at the other man coldly.

"Are you now? So it was you who disabled all the hostage-takers and freed the hostages?" The other man could only splutter.

"There is absolutely no need to debrief Miss Parker right now. She is injured and traumatized, and you already have the most important information on the incident. Mr Lester will back me on this. And Miss Parker is going home now. She has been a victim as much as the other hostages, and should be treated with the same respect."

Jess had risen from her chair by now, and without so much as another glance at the other man, they left the room.

"Thank God you showed up. He made me recount everything – even when they killed the others, and I just couldn't. I can't even think about it." Her voice sounded shaky, and knowing she was at the end of her strength, he put a supporting arm around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this. That man is an arse. Lester assured me we didn't need to give our statements right away."

"I just want to forget about everything that happened today."

"I know." Deciding it was time they finally got out of the ARC, he turned into the nearest corridor for a short-cut to the garage.

"Come on, let's get you home. We've done enough for today."

They walked to the garage in silence, his arm still around her shoulders, for comfort as well as support. It only occurred to him now that they hadn't had anything to eat all day, and nothing more to drink than a bit of water. Jess must be exhausted.

She was quiet for a while before blurting out:

"Would you mind..." she paused, embarrassed. "Could you maybe stay at my place? Connor and Abby are away on a trip, and I don't think I can be alone right now. Don't worry, I have a very comfy sofa."

"Of course I'll stay. To be honest, I don't particularly fancy being alone right now either."

Taking a quick detour to the locker room, he grabbed his overnight bag before continuing to the car. A maintenance crew was busy repairing the bullet-riddled doors and cleaning up the pools of blood in front of the safe room, and Jess shivered as she remembered the horrible scenes that had taken place here. She was glad for the feel of Becker's warm arm heavy on her shoulders, the very solidity of which seemed to promise that everything would be fine.

They were silent during the short ride to Jess' apartment, both lost in thoughts. As Becker pulled up to the curb and got out of the car, a young blond man walked past him, stopped abruptly, and turned back around.

"Hilary Becker! What on earth are you doing here? We've been waiting for you at the pub for an hour and a half, and you're not answering your cell."

Becker whirled around to face his friend from Sandhurst. With everything that had been going on today, he had completely forgotten about their monthly pub night.

"Sorry mate. I was just very busy..." Jess chose that moment to get out of the car, and his friend shot him a lecherous smirk at the sight of her.

"I can see that."

"... at work. There's been a... problem. This is my colleague, Jess Parker."

Jess turned to face the man fully, and the appraising smirk slipped off the blond man's face at the sight of her bruises.

"The kind of problem I'm going to read about in the paper tomorrow?"

"You would if I worked at any other institution." Jess raised her eyebrows at Becker's unusual indiscretion.

"Don't worry, Jess. Ralph is MI6 – he's used to not asking questions about secretive organisations."

"That's reassuring." Jess knew she sounded rude, and under different circumstances, she would have been thrilled to meet one of Becker's friends. Right now, however, she was too exhausted to be her usual sunny self.

Becker decided to cut the small talk short and make sure she got to rest.

"Ralph, listen, we've had a really long day. I'm sorry for standing you up. I'll call to see if we can repeat the evening soon, okay?"

"That's all right. We'll catch up some other time."

"Thanks." Casting one last look at Becker's battered but attractive young co-worker disappearing inside the building, Ralph gave his friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder before striding on. Becker locked his car and followed Jess inside.

She was standing in the middle of her living-room, looking around the wide, open space as if she had never seen it before. The sight of her scared him a little, especially the empty look he had seen several times today and which he never wanted to see again.

"Jess, are you all right?" Shaking herself out of her trance, she smiled again, one of the fake smiles he had learned to distinguish from her real ones.

"Yes, sure. Just wondering where I've put the spare blankets."

With that she bustled off, rummaging around cupboards and trunks and finally re-emerging with a pillow and some spare blankets which she put on the squashy blue sofa for him.

"You should be comfy enough here. I've also put some towels for you in the bathroom, and a spare toothbrush in case you don't have one in your overnight bag. Is there anything else you'll need?"

He shook his head.

"No, thank you Jess. What about you?" She looked surprised at the question.

"Well, I live here, I certainly have everything I need."

"That's not what I meant. Will you be all right?"  
>"Of course I will. I really just need to sleep."<p>

He was not entirely convinced, but he let her go without further protests. After a quick trip to the bathroom, he settled in for the night. The sofa was surprisingly comfortable, but despite the long, exhausting day it took him quite a while to fall asleep, and even then he still slept lightly and woke up again several times.

On the last of these occasions, just as the first light was starting to creep across the sky, Becker suddenly heard something. At first he thought he had imagined it, but then he heard it again: A muffled scream pierced the silence of the apartment. He knew it originated in Jess' bedroom, and in a flash, he was up and standing by her bedside. She was curled up under her blanket, twitching and whimpering quietly as if in pain. It was a heart-wrenching sight, so he quietly called out her name and, when that didn't help, gently shook her by the shoulder.

She sat up abruptly, looking around with a panicked look on her face. When her eyes fell on him, she calmed down, and he could see now that there were tears running down her face.

"I was back at the ARC. I watched them die again. And then..."

He sat down on her bed and drew her into his arms.

"Shh. Don't think about it any more. It's over, you're safe."

He felt her shiver in his arms, but her sobs quickly ceded, until she was simply leaning into him quietly, and he wondered if she had fallen asleep. That was when she pushed herself away.

"Maybe I should get up. I'll only dream again if I go back to sleep."

He knew very well what she was going through, having had his first experience with death and brutality a few years back, and he agreed. Going back to sleep right now would not help. Maybe taking her mind off things would. And he knew just the place to do that.

"Get dressed. We're going somewhere else, somewhere you might get some peace."

Jess was surprised but, still half-asleep, she stood up as he left the room. A few minutes later, she also emerged from the bedroom wearing a pair of jeans and a soft blue angora sweater.

Half an hour later, they were sitting in his car again, travelling east – at least, Jess guessed it was east, because the sky was growing brighter before them. She didn't recognize the names of the places they passed, having never been in this part of the country despite its proximity to London, and so she was completely surprised when, after exiting the motorway and taking a few more turns, she was suddenly looking at the sea.

Shortly after, Becker drove off the road onto a rest area and parked the car facing away from the amazing view. When she got out and turned around, it was to find herself on the edge of high cliffs, looking out over the calm sea to a sky that was slowly turning from dark blue to light, with a hint of pink creeping in. It was calming, beautiful and the exact opposite of the ARC safe room she had spent so much time in recently.

Becker had taken a few blankets from her apartment, one of which he now spread on the back of the pick-up truck before helping Jess climb up. She was a little surprised as he sat down next to her and spread a second blanket over her legs before wrapping a third one around her shoulders, keeping her warm and snug from the cold morning air.

"Now we watch the sun rise."

And so they did, mostly in silence, his arm around her shoulders again. Jess smiled slightly as she rested her head on his shoulder. Never in a million years would she have expected Becker to take her to the seaside to watch the sunrise, of all things. It was sad that it had taken such tragic events to get them so close, but she wasn't going to complain about it now. With him as distant as he usually was, Jess took what she could get.

When they got back to Jess' apartment a few hours later, Connor and Abby had returned from their trip. Apparently, they had also been informed about what exactly had happened, because as soon as Jess opened the door, they threw themselves at her, hugging and questioning her and generally acting like concerned mother hens. Suppressing a smile at their affection, Becker quietly retreated and drove home to his own place. He knew he would still not be able to sleep for a while, but with Jess now looked after, he finally had time to deal with the events of the past day on his own.

And there was quite a bit of dealing with to do. Despite what Lester had deemed a successful outcome because they had managed to protect Connor's research results, there was only one thing burned onto his mind: People had died yesterday, colleagues and criminals, people he had killed and people he had failed to protect. They were on his conscience, no matter what Lester or Jess said.

Becker hadn't cried in years, and he wasn't going to cry now, but when he got home, he certainly wished he could. He sat down on his lumpy grey Futon, suddenly feeling weary to the bones. No man his age should feel this old, he thought.

A/N: I don't know if there are cliffs with a view over the sea if one drives eastwards out of London for little under an hour, but let's assume there are.


	7. Chapter 7

Unfortunately, as the ARC team learned on Monday morning, the adventure was not over yet. There was to be an inquiry into how three ARC employees could have died while their Head of Security was safe in the Panic Room. At least the investigation didn't seem to be a very official affair: The Special Forces coordinator who had led the hostage situation, accompanied by two Government officials, simply came to the ARC and questioned all the employees who had been taken hostage as well as going over all the reports and security feeds.

It was a stressful week, mildly put, and despite Jess and Becker's vital role in the hostage situation, they were not granted any reprieve. As Jess was the one who had to pull up the multitude of files the officials requested, and Becker was once again busy repairing and improving their security system with Connor's help, they saw very little of each other. Nonetheless, they managed to meet at least once every day, if only briefly, to enjoy a quick chat and a coffee, and Becker never failed to bring Jess her chocolate, which she found herself relying on more than ever as the officials continued to snoop around and ask questions that made everyone feel inexplicably guilty.

In addition to the suddenly increased workload – at least there were no anomalies, Jess thought gratefully – she also hadn't been sleeping well; images of the hostage-taking replaying themselves over and over in her mind. She appreciated everyone, even Lester, trying to cheer her up, but it was Becker's short visits at the ADD that she craved the most. Somehow, as it had been during the hostage-situation, but, she had to admit, even before, seeing him made her feel safe and protected. She had also noticed that he also looked drawn and tired, and she knew from the pained expression in his eyes that he was feeling guilty. Again, Becker had got it into his head that, since he had failed to protect every single person working around the ARC, their death had been his fault, and his alone. Jess hated seeing him looking so dejected, and tried her best to cheer him up. Knowing he would worry if he learned that she wasn't dealing with things too well, she always touched up her make-up before he came for his daily visit, making sure to erase all traces of the dark circles under her eyes that betrayed her composure. As soon as he entered, she was all smiles and laughs and embarrassed babbling, because she knew how it amused him.

By the end of the week, the rest of the team had noticed the charade Jess was playing around Becker, but no one said anything to her, and for that she was thankful. Because as much strength as it cost her to pull herself together and pretend everything was fine, she was more than willing to do it for him. In fact, the only time she actually felt better was when Becker smiled at one of her jokes, at a story told with particular enthusiasm or a little Freudian slip that caused her to blush.

At the end of the week, Becker, Jess and Connor were called into Lester's office for a final hearing. That was when things went from tense to ugly, as the man presiding over the hearing was the person Becker had butted heads with before over the interrogation of Jess right after the hostage situation. Jess remembered the way the man had questioned her, as if the entire thing had somehow been her fault, and one quick look at Becker told her he was equally uncomfortable with the situation. At least Lester was with them, managing to look both efficient and annoyed and thus wordlessly telling the man what exactly he thought of this interrogation.

"After reading all of your reports and talking to the hostages in person, we can now say that we know what exactly happened here last Saturday. However, there are still a few questions as to why it all happened. Captain Becker, would you please explain to me how it came to be that you were in the safe room while your colleagues were in the hands of brutal hostage-takers?" If possible, Becker tensed up even more, replying through clenched teeth:

"As we have told you before, Miss Parker and I had to make the decision to protect a hard-drive with some highly classified and very dangerous research data. This hard-drive, as well as a prototype for a dangerous technology, was the reason for the kidnappers' presence at the ARC. Letting it fall into their hands would have been disastrous."

The interrogator remained unimpressed by Becker's explanation.

"Instead, you let the men kill three of the people you were supposed to protect. I'd call that disastrous."

Jess clenched her fists, hating the man for pouncing on Becker's greatest weakness like this. She knew he already felt guilty for the death of their colleagues.

"Did you not hear Captain Becker? He said it was a difficult decision we had to make. He did not say he liked taking this option," Jess defended her friend and colleague.

"Miss Parker, you are neither the subject of this interrogation right now, nor very qualified to decide whether or not Captain Becker made the right decision. After all, you benefited from it, didn't you?"

"I benefited..." Jess was rendered speechless, and the man went on, increasingly aggressive.

"Captain Becker, other employees have expressed suspicions of some kind of romantic relationship between you and Miss Parker. Maybe this influenced your decision to take her to the safe room?"

Jess held her breath, her face burning. Lovely, just lovely. She was nowhere near having a 'romantic relationship' with Becker – not for lack of trying on her side – and yet it was being used against them now? This was simply not fair.

Thankfully, Lester decided to go into his Papa-Bear-mode at that point and intervene to protect his team – a rare, but impressive occurrence.

"If you have to resort to office gossip as the basis of your accusations, this entire inquiry is nothing but a waste of government money and time. The nature of the relationship between Captain Becker and Miss Parker is absolutely irrelevant to the matter. Fact is that Miss Parker was the person with the highest security clearance in the building at the time. That means, had the hostage-takers had her in their possession, they could have forced her to give them access to the ARC's entire computer system. Every bit of highly classified data as well as control over the entire building would have been in their hands. Captain Becker did well to keep her as well as the research data out of their reach."

"While Miss Parker's vital role to the ARC's computer system is indisputable, I fail to see how much damage she would have been able to cause, really..." The man was still not willing to give up his hostile position, and they were all quickly reaching the end of their patience. This time it was Connor's turn to jump in, quite literally jumping up from his chair to defend them.

"Listen, mate, I don't think you get it. There is research on my hard-drive that could literally mean the end of the world. I should know, I developed it. I watched Philip Burton blow up a power station with it. Believe me, you would not want that in some criminal's hands." Lester, who was standing behind Connor, hid a smile at his impassioned defence of his colleagues, gently placed a hand on the scientist's shoulder and pushed him back down onto his chair.  
>"That, by the way, was testimony by our leading research scientist, Mr Connor Temple."<p>

After this explanation, Lester clapped his hands and walked over to his desk, unmistakeably signalling for the baffled interrogator to vacate his chair.

"I think we can confirm that, as tragic as the death of of our colleagues was, there is no blame to be placed on Captain Becker or Miss Parker. They made a choice, a very difficult one, to protect the world from a dangerous technology. The death of three innocent people was at the hands of the hostage-takers, and theirs alone. And now I would ask you to kindly put a stop to this nonsense, leave my premises and let us all get back to work. I do have an institution to run here and not a science show for curious government personnel."

Ten minutes later, the government officials were gone, and everyone went back to their stations, slightly dazed at the sudden end of the inquiry.

With that, the entire affair seemed to be over. With the investigation out of the way and their dead colleagues buried, Lester of all people decided the team should go out and celebrate something. Conveniently, Connor's birthday was coming up, which would be the perfect excuse for a bit of winding down. After what they had all been through these past few months, they certainly deserved it.

A/N: It seems you guys are thinking about this story quite a bit more than I am – some of you have been asking questions I hadn't even thought of... I really hope this won't get me into trouble when you realise I myself actually have no idea who the people are that are trying to get to the ARC - the only reason I wrote this story is to have an excuse for some shameless Jecker fluff. ;-)

And I hope no one thinks Lester is being heartless for taking them out to dinner after their colleagues have just died. Trust me, he has his reasons.

BTW, while the last two chapters were a little calmer, the action is going to pick up again, so stay with me.


End file.
